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Why are Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern called the Second Viennese School?

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Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg in a suit, seated at a piano and holding a conductor's baton, appears to be conducting music in a wood-paneled room. — Arnold Schoenberg Austrian-American composer Arnold Schoenberg was one of the most influential teachers of music composition of the 20th century. He also was known for his creation of new methods of musical composition involving atonality, namely serialism and the 12-tone row.

Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern are collectively known as the Second Viennese School because they were the primary figures who pioneered revolutionary new methods of musical composition in Vienna during the early 20th century.1

The group is defined by their development of atonality—a departure from traditional tonal centers—and the subsequent creation of serialism and the 12-tone row. This musical evolution began through the close association between Arnold Schoenberg and his two most significant pupils, Alban Berg and Anton Webern, who together explored these new dimensions of musical expression.23

The term distinguishes them from the "First Viennese School," which refers to the Classical-era composers such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert.4